ART AND ENTERTAINMENT: Shelley Barry workshop

Shelley Barry @ Iranti-org

Shelley Barry working with the Iranti-org media and documentation team

South Africa, Johannesburg, 27 August 2015

Iranti-org was honoured to have Shelley Barry, award-winning filmmaker, poet, lecturer and video trainer at our offices during August 2015. Shelley’s company, twospinningwheels productions aims to explore new languages in cinema and giving marginalised voices access to the craft of filmmaking. The company is dedicated to making the stories visible that the mainstream renders invisible. It achieves this by conducting film training and making films about people who will most likely not see their stories on the screen: women, people with disabilities, the LGBTQI sector, artists, children and elders.

Her brief at Iranti-org was to work with the Media and Documentation team, doing a training needs assessment, evaluating video footage, identifying content for a new short film and assisting them with crafting a story, scripting, production and how to shoot for the edit.

“Working with an organisation such as Iranti is completely in alignment of my vision for twospinningwheels productions. The work that Iranti does is vital to a democratic South Africa and for an egalitarian society. I applaud the fact that our experiences as the LGBTQI community are being documented via media, which has the capacity to have far reaching impact in this age of technology.”

Shelley has focused on working with the team on the production of a new video, highlighting the plight of trans and gender non-conforming learners in the South African education system.

“We have been working on gender inequality in South African schools. Over the past two years, Iranti-org has documented cases of lesbian being expelled, bullied and discriminated in schools. Shelley has been helping us with conceptualising the story, scriptwriting and drafting a documentary treatment to make a powerful story,“ says Gugu Mandla.

Iranti-org will launch this new film in September.

Male, female, trans or intersex…

by Mimi Miyagi (2014)

Male, female, trans or intersex…
Forget the physical and focus on my soul
Most people too often will turn their backs,
And do nothing to try to stop these attacks.
When violence is committed against another

Male, female, trans or intersex…
Forget the physical and focus on my soul
Every day is a struggle to just stay alive.
And the thought of all of this is too chilling,
As the human race, we're just trying to survive

Male, female, trans or intersex…
Forget the physical and focus on my soul
Hatred is blinding and they aren't seeing
Why should it matter what gender you prefer to kiss?
There's no reason to cause harm to another being

Male, female, trans or intersex…
Forget the physical and focus on my soul
Too many people don't want to understand
But someone being different isn't always the cause
Some will attack others even without any flaws

Male, female, trans or intersex…
Forget the physical and focus on my soul
Wouldn't all violence be considered a hate crime?
Many close their mouths and become mute like walls
Something's going on… This thing is all wrong.

Male, female, trans or intersex…
Forget the physical and focus on my soul
And even if the person that left us is gone
They will always be known for the things that they did wrong
How can being who you are be so wrong?

Male, female, trans or intersex…
Forget the physical and focus on my soul
We undermine these misconstrued minds
And hold vigils hoping we can go back in time
I cannot promise that your heart will be at ease after today…

Male, female, trans or intersex…
Forget the physical and focus on my soul
If God is the ultimate good, why do cold blooded men rape and kill our sisters?
If God is real, I write for him to answer
There’s only so much I can do with my human powers

Art EXHIBITION

Testimony by Adejoke Tugbiyele
@ Goodman Gallery 5 Sept - 10 Oct 2015

Click the image to enlarge

South Africa, Cape Town, 5 Sept-10 Oct

In her forthcoming solo exhibition, TESTIMONY, the first in South Africa and on the continent, Adejoke Tugbiyele speaks to her personal experience and the lived and imagined experiences of all Nigerians, regardless of gender and sexual orientation. She takes as her motivation the fact that many Nigerians and other Africans cannot survive each day without dreaming of being elsewhere – somewhere far away. A percentage of proceeds from the exhibition TESTIMONY will go towards supporting the educational mission of Iranti-org. Read more...

THEATRE: I stand corrected

'I stand corrected':
Tracing a South African Queer Theatre

South Africa, 3 April 2013

Selogadi Mampane reviews a new collaborative theatre work by Mojisola Adebayo and Mamela Nyamza, 'I STAND CORRECTED' (2013). Based on a true story, it has been making mouths flutter and headlines buzz as it makes its way around Johannesburg, Cape Town and England. The play recounts the events surrounding the marriage of a queer, cross-continental, interracial couple and details their fight for the right to love each other as equal citizens of our democracy. Read more...

Robert Hamblin

Daughter Language -
an exhibition

Johannesburg, 1 July 2015
In a globalized world, few marriages are still arranged for economic, social or political gain; and with it procreation, for the purpose of producing an heir, has ceased to be a primary function of matrimonial unions. Instead we choose our partners based on love and mutual attraction. We are moving beyond the notion of the family as institution, bound by blood and governed by social code, towards understanding the family as a negotiated relationship. Click here to read more and see more images in PDF form (1.5MB).

Art: DON'T BE SILENCED EXHIBITION

The Gay and Lesbian Network is hosting a hate crimes exhibition “don’t be silenced”

Pietermaritzburg, 20 February 2014

The Gay and Lesbian Network is hosting a hate crimes exhibition which is taking place from 7 February - 7 March 2014 at the KwaZulu Natal Museum, 237 Jabu Ndlovu Street, Pietermaritzburg. The purpose of the exhibition is to provide a space to educate and create awareness about hate crimes. The exhibition would also encourage individuals and communities to take the initiative to report such incidents should they experience or witness it.

The exhibition comprises panels of personal stories and testimonies, photographs, campaign posters, videos, fact sheets and a hate crime resource booklet. There will also be a number of events which would be part of the exhibition and includes: